I've trained with people from other martial arts, as well as with just people who instinctively resist.

They can be worked with, because their resistance is usually honest to some degree, and is natural to the current kata/energy given. They're usually reasonable and understand the purpose of training as giving energy specific to a localized situation, one of many potential situations, hence the energy should be a certain way for the purpose of training. They're here to EXPLORE with me, in the end.

These guys are different. They have advanced knowledge of how to cancel Aikido kata, and henka waza is generally looked down upon in this specific dojo, so we're trapped in this very specific situation...

... the situation where you do technique slowly, because in realtime these people will growl and retaliate. Attempting henka waza anyway will result in more aggressive resistance or kaeshi waza, or, in the rare case that it is executed aggressively enough to succeed, they will berate you and tell you to take it easy.

In the end they come off as being calm and rational. But they will drop you on their knee or crank your elbow, if you do their cancellation ukemi back at them.

The whole thing strikes me as basically two bullies who are too scared to do Judo.

In Judo or Sambo or any other competitive art, they would've been quickly put in their place. Which is why they're not practicing those arts.

I haven't talked to Sensei about this, but others have.

His perspective on the matter is that it's just a different kind of training for us.

... the kind of training that drains the dojo of students? People I liked, who are no longer attending...

And so, after the last several years of trying to adapt, I abandoned the faux enlightement mantras of "being thankful for one's enemies" and "everyone has something to teach", I let go of self-blame, in favor of a far more intuitive conclusion - life is too short to deal with this crap.

Since submitting that first post (it took over a week to get approved), I stopped going to classes contaminated with these people, and swapped those classes for a different dojo.